Politics, Science and Edumacation

My Hesitation

One of the things that make me hesitate to jump on the global warming bandwagon is the unanimity that has arisen on the subject. I get nervous when everyone agrees, especially on a scientific issue. We ape-folk are prone to panics, moral and otherwise. And I fear that in our haste to “do something”, we will cause immense damage not only to our economy but perhaps to the environment. What stupid and destructive technologies might we adopt in our hysteria? What if we all get CFC lightbulbs and it turns out they’re putting mercury in the air? Could we get another MTBA where we put an additive in gas the pollute the water?

We have a bad history with this sort of thing. The excesses we have gone to to “solve” poverty, drugs, crime, terrorism and racism have often had terrible side effects. Our industrial engine is vast, complex and powerful. We should be very careful about tinkering with it.

And again, there’s an atonishing amount of smarminess and stupidity popping up on the issue. My diatribe here was stimulated by Al Gore’s back-patting in Hollywood — once again asking everyone else to sacrifice. And getting rewarded for the hysterical, false and destructive claim that global warming caused Katrina.

I can guarantee that bad solutions to global warming are going to be foisted upon us. Ethanol for example.

'Culture'

Academy Awards

So far, I’ve seen Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed. The latter was the better film, although Sunshine was enjoyable. I’m eager to see Babel especially. Despite the dreck we’ve seen on silver screens the last two months, I still think 2007 will be a good year.

On the political side, everytime I see AlGore, I’m glad we didn’t elect that hamster President. Of course, I’m not terribly pleased with the shmuck we did end up with, but we would have done a lot worse if we’d put that pseudo-intellectual elitist in there.

And am I the only person who wonders how the hell the Oscars “went green”? Does this mean they drove up in hybrid limos? Has Leo DeCaprio given up his SUV? Is AlGore flying business class instead of on private jets?

Bunch of assholes patting themselves on the back. It’s easy to say you’re green and get lots of cheers. It’s much harder to give up on the priveleges of the rich and famous. It’s always the rest of America that has to sacrifice.

I was a little disappointed with Ellen Degeneres or whoever that was occupying her body. Ellen normally kills me – her standup is hilarious and never wallows in the worn-out trough of female comics – insecurity. Tonight the edge was off. They were looking for a kindler gentler host. That’s what they got. Snooze.

Oh, one last thing. The Oscar are much more tolerable on DVR.

Culture War, News, Politics, Science and Edumacation, The Nanny State, War on Terror

What I Learned

During my 12-day absence, I missed the hell out of blogging. I was relentlessly pressuring my brother to “Get the blog back up!”, which is fairly presumptuous since I don’t pay him nuthin’. Anyway, there may only be three people that read this blog if you include my cat. But there’s something therapeutic about putting my thoughts out there. At the very least, it puts off my rendezvous with a rooftop and an AK-47 off for a few more days each time I post.

There’s been a lot to talk about. We’ve had:

  • Republicans insisting that the Brit pullout means things are going well. The GOP loves the “everything is going fine in 80% of the country” meme. I’m really glad we’ve secured such huge areas of uninhabited desert. When it’s possible to drive from Baghdad to the airport without being shot, let us know.
  • Walter Williams brilliantly guest-hosted for Limbaugh and wrote a column on one my favorite subjects — the danger of Opportunity Cost.
  • John Stossell had a nice special on the disproportionate fear we have of things. We fear terrorism and child abduction more than we fear lightning strikes, which kill more people. Of course, it’s not that simple. We feel like we can prevent terrorism and child abduction. Most people don’t feel that way about lightning.
  • Cato reported that kids are, for the first time, trailing their parents in education. The NYT chimed in that grades are rising even as reading ability falters. This is the system we have to forgo vouchers to protect? Every day makes it clearer to me that our education system is fundamentally broken.
  • And there was a nice diatribe from Radley Balko in response to Michael Medved’s nonsense about how only men of God can be President.
    • News, Politics

    Ye Olde Posts

    So what has happened to the last fifteen months of blogging? I have no idea. I’m hoping there is a database somewhere in my directory structure that I can eventually resuscitate. But for now, we’re a blank slate here at michaelsiegel.net. Ah, the possibilities. I coudl pretend to be a liberal or something.

    Of course, since I started criticizing Bush, everyone already thinks I ama liberal. Oh well.

    Right now, I’m recovering my last few from the old RSS feed.

    News

    Back to Life

    Just a note to indicate we’re back on the air. What happened? Well, the spam had gotten to the point where my brother’s server was being overloaded. We have now switched to WordPress, which should mitigate the problem. We hope.

    I’m still tinkering, hoping to set this up so that registration will be required to comment.

    And how appropriate that the damn thing crashed on Valentine’s Day?

    Politics, The Nanny State

    Overreach

    Apparently, the new Red Sox ace is drawing the ire of the US government for drinking beer in an ad.

    An ad that aired in Japan.

    This comes on the heels of arrests of foreign internet gambling managers in US airports.

    If this sounds reasonable to you, I wonder you’d think of Saudis yanking people off of planes if they’ve ever had a drink. Or perhaps tossing Bill Clinton off a minaret for adultery.

    This is not a can of worms we need to be opening. I’ll tell you what, Feds. Wh don’t you start off with simple, like enforcing the laws of this country *in* this country against the people to whom it applies. For example you could, oh I don’t know, enforce the laws against tens of millions of illegal immigrants. After you perfect that, we’ll talk about enforcing our laws on Japan and Britain.

    Arrogant assholes. This is what happens when you elect a President who thinks he is absolutely right on every issue. Constitution, international law and national borders be damned. He’s RIGHT. God told him so.

    Politics, Taxes and Spending

    Tax Courage

    You know something I’m sick of? The media hailing tax-hikes as “courageous”. It takes precisely zero political courage to raise taxes. Most of the taxes are paid by a small minority of people – at the federal level, half of Americans don’t pay any taxes at all. So raising taxes doesn’t take any courage beyond pandering.

    On the other hand, cutting spending takes tremendous courage — as demonstrated by the tremendous dearth of it. Every special interest wants its money. Every program has its vocal defenders. And spending programs are judged not by their records but by their intentions. Cutting useless anti-poverty programs “hurts the poor”; cutting ineffective anti-drug programs “puts kids on drugs”.

    And real courage would be the media throwing away the Democratic (or in this case, pseudo-Republican) Party talking points and having opinions of their own

    Politics, Taxes and Spending

    Oily Idiot

    Governor Jim Doyle wins my Idiot of the month award:

    Gov. Jim Doyle proposes taxing big oil companies more than $270 million over the next two years to help pay for the state’s transportation needs.

    Doyle said the assessment will equate to $1.50 per barrel of oil sold in the state, and the companies would be prohibited from passing the tax on to customers at the pump. Violations carry a criminal penalty of up to six months in prison.

    How precisely does one do this? Are we talking about price controls. *Ding*, I believe we are. And what happens when you fix the price of something below market value? That’s right, it disappears from the market.

    People in Wisconsin had better learn to ride bicycles.

    Politics, Taxes and Spending

    Bend Over

    One of the common misconceptions about conservatives/libertarians is that we are “pro-business”. We’re not. We’re pro-freedom. One of the things we despise most is the incestuous relationship between government and business – as exemplified in our outrage over the Kelo decision.

    Well, around the nation, chambers of commerce have now pitted themselves against the taxpayer. This is the exact opposite of what they should be doing. These guys are supposed to promote business in general rather than being in the pocket of every deep-monied interest.

    That means low taxes, assholes.

    I swear. Between big business, big education, big senior citizenry and big government, we are being screwed down to the table. But it could be worse. At least the chambers are in favor of tax hikes today, unlike the President and the Congress who are happily raising taxes on tomorrow or the states that are selling future lottery and toll revenues for payouts today.

    Time to lay up some torches and pitchforks.

    Astronomy, Sports, Mathematical Malpractice, Whatever Else Pops Into My Head